Tricks of the Trade
by Sheep Overlord
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto has always wanted to be a ninja. What he never realized, however, is that while ninjas may be cool, lessons at Konoha's Ninja Academy are grueling, and with biased teachers abound, they may just end up killing him. Partial AU WIP R
1. Prologue

Author's Note: This is a WIP, with a number of directions I could take it floating in my mind. Not much is set in stone yet, so any comments, reviews and constructive criticism or suggestions would be welcomed. Please no flames, though; this is my first story.

* * *

_Ninja._ The word was whispered among the children of the village. Every boy wanted to be a hero; every girl, a savior. _Shinobi. Kunoichi. _Almost every youth applied to the Konohagakure Ninja Academy, and most were turned away in droves. The academy could only seat so many students, of course; and of those precious few seats available, over half were claimed by prestigious ninja clans of the village for their children, reserved since birth. But even of those few villagers deemed acceptable to join the academy, there were many who never attended. The children were told they were not worthy; in truth, their parents, jaded and wise to the ways of the world, covertly stopped their attendance. _Shinobi, Kunoichi, _the children whispered; but to their parents, they were ninja. _Assassins_. And so it was that a sunny-eyed blonde boy, innocent and with no parents to refuse his attendance, was accepted into the Konoha Academy.

His name was Naruto, and Kami, he was only six. He did not know, and until attending would not know, the first rule of the Konoha Ninja Academy: Drop out and get out. Banned. Exiled. A student could not leave the Academy without being labeled a missing nin and being removed – forcibly – from the city proper. Konoha's Ninja Academy had one of the most rigorous training regimes for students out of all of the elemental nations. Every aspect of life from day one was focused on making quality ninja's – and it worked. Konoha had and still has the highest success ratio for missions, and its ninja are fabled worldwide… so long as they survive the academy.

* * *

The sun shined through the grimy windows, dancing across the still-closed eyes of a golden haired child. Yawning, Uzumaki Naruto sat up in bed, shedding his worn covers.

Eyes widening as he spied the clock on the far wall which read 7:37, he cursed under his breath and hurried to get dressed. _Today was the day._ He was _supposed_ to report to the Ninja Academy for initiation that morning at nine, but his bare apartment was easily a half-hour away from the academy proper. Pulling on a faded black T-shirt and an old pair of shorts, he forlornly spied the cup of ramen he had left out the night before, as a special breakfast to congratulate himself.

_Stupid alarm…_ he thought, cursing it again. _No time for that now. Gotta run if I'm gonna get there on time!_

Sprinting down the streets of Konoha as quickly as his young body could manage, he barely avoided running headfirst into a produce wagon as he rounded the corner.

"Hey, watch it Gaki!" the irate owner shouted, but Naruto simply giggled and ran right on by. Today he would start learning how to be a ninja, and how to blow fireballs and all the fun things ninja's did. Life was _good._

The ANBU tailing him, assigned to his protection from angry villagers as the child roamed the streets, felt only pity however.

The poor boy was in for a nasty surprise.


	2. Chapter 1

Dashing up to the wrought-iron gates of the Konoha Ninja Academy's sprawling complex, Naruto felt good. He gave a jaunty wave to the ninja standing guard, who merely gazed back at the boy with a look in his eyes akin to sorrow, perhaps even regret.

_Odd_, thought Naruto as he continued to the induction hall; _most people either pretend I don't exist, or seem really angry when they see me. Wonder if he's got gas?_

The thought didn't remain for long, however; he was a young child, and his mind was prone to wandering. He slowed to a jog as he neared his destination, taking in the sights.

_Home,_ the thought suddenly struck him. _This is my home now._ Most of his meager possessions had already been delivered to the academy the day before, in preparation for his arrival. He had been told he would be assigned a dorm with other boys his age, and his possessions would be waiting there for him. He followed the directions of a disgruntled chunin examiner to reach his destination: The induction hall.

Pushing open the large wooden door to the concrete building, he glanced at a clock on the wall. It read 8:03. _Damn,_ he muttered. He had been _so _close to being right on time, too.

As he entered the spacious room – he estimated that it could seat nearly 100 students, although only perhaps 40 or so were present besides him – a vicious looking chunin glanced up at him from behind a podium at the front of the room.

"Glad to see you could make it, gaki," the man snarked, seeming almost feral, "do try to be more… _punctual_, though. A late ninja is a dead ninja."

Looking back down to the podium in front of him, he made a checkmark on a paper and looked up to survey the room as Naruto took a seat.

"Alright, looks like you're all here. First things first - I'm Namiashi Raido, and I will be your primary instructor for this year. I don't expect you to like me; hell, by the time this week's up, most of you would probably kill to see me dead. And that's good… fury is a good motivational tool. So: ground rules. Don't kill or seriously injure any of the other students. Any injuries are reported to _me,_ and _I _will deal with them appropriately." The tone of his voice suggested that he would be dealing with them _personally_, as well. Many of the students shrunk back into their seats, Naruto included. This was not what they had been expecting.

"You will all rise at 5:00 sharp," the chunin continued, "and run five laps around the compound. Those of you from clans who can use chakra already, know this: use any chakra while running, any at all, and you will be running extra laps. For every five minutes you runts are late, you'll each be running an extra five laps, even if only one person is lagging behind. You are Konoha ninja and you are a _team_, so failure for one of you is failure for all.

"After the laps, you have fifteen minutes to shower, dress and eat. Then you'll be returning to physical training, with meditation exercises and stealth practice throughout the day. To be a ninja you need chakra, and to have chakra you need to be fit. This job isn't for the faint of heart, and once you're in you can never get out. Abandoning your training, or even leaving the Academy grounds without permission, is enough to get you kicked out of Konoha or worse. You WILL NOT be leaving these grounds for the next few years. At all. And even after that, you'll be closely monitored while on field expeditions until you graduate. Got it, punks?"

The attendees were whispering fearfully amongst each other now, terrified of the knowledge that they would not get to see their friends or family for years. Only those few children from renowned clans seemed unsurprised by this revelation, suggesting that they had learned this from their parents years ago.

A roar cut through the whispers, silencing them. Naruto glanced around – that hadn't sounded human at _all_ – and found the source of the noise: a large cat, a _lion_ more precisely, lounging by the podium at Raido's feet.

"I'm not finished," continued the instructor lazily. "Next year, once you're all in reasonable shape and have at least the basic grasp of stealth and meditation, you'll begin lessons in chakra theory and weapon usage in addition to your normal schedule. Subsequent years will add silent killing, the art of mastering and masking killing intent, basic jutsu and chakra control, and dealing with genjutsu. In your last year here, you'll be given the choice of specialization: you'll be able to choose whether you focus on Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, or Taijutsu, as well as refining one of the secondary ninja skills such as sealing or kenjutsu. In addition, in later years, you'll be assigned as a tutor for the newer students."

He paused for a moment, checking the sheets of paper in his hand, before continuing the monologue. "Alright brats, these are your dorms. Each dorm will be assigned an older student to keep you under control. If a sensei isn't present, _they are in charge._ They can and will penalize you just like a sensei would.

"Alright now: In dorm one are Aburame Shino, Akibeshi Tensou, and Akimichi Chouj, supervised by Kotetsu Hagane…" Naruto fidgeted while the chunin called the dorms. He was miserable now; this wasn't fun at _all_. Finally, his name was called. "Dorm eleven: Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Yari Awa, supervised by Izumo Kamizuki."

Naruto frowned. He didn't know any of these people, and weren't Uchihas one of those big clans? He'd already be way behind on his training. His thoughts were interrupted, however, by the opening of the doors behind him. A number of older students entered the room and each announced a dorm number. Then, without looking back, they turned and left the room again.

The message was clear: follow, or be left behind.

So Naruto followed, surprised at how easygoing his dorm's assigned mentor seemed to be – perhaps this place wouldn't be so bad after all. They walked quietly, following the older boy through twisting streets across the majority of the compound.

Finally, when Naruto was about to ask if Izumo even knew where they were going, the group reached a small building with a large '11' painted in a bold red above the door. "Here we are," he said as he opened the door. What greeted them were spartan accommodations, with a small duffel bag at the foot of each of three beds within the room – the personal belongings of himself and the others, Naruto assumed. He also noticed two other doors. One was open a crack, and he could make out a sink through the opening - _must be a bathroom_, he thought. As he moved to investigate the other room, however, Izumo stopped him.

"_This_," he said, "is my room. If I catch any of you snooping around in there, there'll be hell to pay. Just keep out and do what I say, and we'll get along just fine."

Nodding his acceptance, and seeing the other boys do the same, he backstepped and changed his course to one of the beds, which had a familiar bag at its foot. Before he could begin to unpack, however, Izumo yanked him away and motioned for the other boys to follow him as well.

"You can unpack later," Izumo remarked offhandedly. "First, I've gotta give you the tour – standard operating procedure, and all that, and you'll be expected to know where to go tomorrow."

Acquiescing, the young boys followed as he led them first to the daily rendezvous point from which their laps would start, then to the cafeteria, the coed showers, and finally the classrooms.

Gesturing off in another direction, Izumo commented, "There are training grounds off that way, but you won't be using them for the next year or so and you'll probably get injured if you get too close, so I'd suggest staying away unless there on orders. I'd show you them personally, but I can see that you're all beat, and I remember that the first week is always hell." And he was right – having just traveled several miles around the compound in the unfit bodies of six year olds, the boys were already exhausted. Uchiha Sasuke seemed to be in better shape than the two civilian boys, and wasn't breathing as heavily, but as Izumo watched, the Uzumaki gaki started to catch his breath too. Within a minute, his breathing had completely steadied and he looked as if he was fresh from bed and ready to start – quite unusual for a civilian child so young.

Shaking the train of thought, Izumo guided the members of Dorm 11 back to the concrete bunker now called home for them, and they called it a night. Amused, he noticed that they fell asleep even as their heads were hitting the pillow. They'd be in for a nasty surprise the next moring.


End file.
